Run the audit. Fix it the same afternoon.
What Google & AIActually See
The Five-Minute Self-Audit
Most of us have never looked at our own website the way Google or ChatGPT does. This page fixes that.
“Let Google do the Googling for you.”
That’s Google’s own line. Here’s what happens when someone asks a chatbot about a business like yours:
You ask a chatbot
“Who’s the best roofer in Lincoln?”
It searches Google
Real searches, behind the scenes, in real time.
It summarizes the results
What’s already ranking becomes the answer.
A winery in Vancouver asked ChatGPT for a web designer. It recommended a seven-person shop in Lincoln, Nebraska. He filled out our contact form and told us where he came from.
Great project. Great review. And we only know AI sent him because our form asked. AI matchmaking is already sending real clients to real businesses. The rest of this page is how to become the business it recommends.
Read your homepage the way a machine does.
Your title tag
The browser-tab words. The single strongest sentence on your site. Hover over your browser tab to read yours.
Your headings
H1s and H2s are the outline machines skim first. “Welcome to our website” tells them nothing.
Your first 100 words
What you do, who you serve, and where. If it’s missing up top, machines guess.
Also on the reading list: your Google Business Profile, your reviews, and what the rest of the internet says about you.
AI is literal. It repeats what it reads.
Every chatbot kept calling one business “transparent.” Why? Her pricing page literally said “we believe in transparency.”
Story credit: Michelle Bourbonnière of Words on the Rise, from Slow & Steady Ep. 15. The lesson: pick three words you want machines to use about your business, then put those exact words on your homepage, your services pages, and your About page.
Open ChatGPT in an incognito window. Ask it three things.
Recognition
“Tell me about [your business name].” Does it know you exist? Is it right?
Reputation
“Is [your business name] trustworthy?” Notice what it leans on: reviews, Reddit, your own pages.
Recommendation
“Best [what you do] in [your city]?” Did you come up? Who did?
Framework credit: Michelle Bourbonnière. Check all three once a quarter. It’s the new dashboard.
Update your contact form
Add “ChatGPT or other AI” to your “How did you hear about us?” field.
It’s the only way you’ll ever know AI sent someone.
Rewrite your title tag
What you do, who it’s for, and where you are.
It’s the single strongest sentence on your site.
Say what you want said
Put the words you want machines to use on the page. Plainly.
Say it, and AI will say it back.
Grab the worksheet. Run the audit this afternoon.
Here for last year’s round table takeaway? The Landing Page Formula lives here.
Want a second set of eyes on what your website is telling machines? Start here.